An old pop song proclaimed that "the first cut is the deepest."

That was true Saturday night at Marian when heavily favored Minersville jumped to a big first quarter lead, then held on for a 53-42 Schuylkill League victory.That first quarter was so different from the rest of the game.In the first, Minersville (9-2) peeled off 14 straight points and built up a 23-9 lead. It was a huge defensive effort that let the Miners breeze.Marian (4-7) battled back and came within six in the third quarter. In that third quarter, the Colts outscored their foe, 15-7.In the last three quarters, Marian accumulatively outscored Minersville 33-30.Marian Coach John Patton said of that first quarter, "When we came out they were down one of their players; they were down a guard. So, we figured we'd stay with the zone, but they they kind of cut it up."Cut it up! The Miners mangled the Colts' zone."They kind of were physical," Patton said of Minersville in that first quarter.The assault on Marian didn't last long. The Colts battled back and in the third quarter got to within six."We made a great comeback," Patton said. "We cut it down to six right before the end of the third quarter. But the basket and foul right at the end really hurt us and put them up by nine. We never really recovered."That three-point play as the quarter expired was by the Miners' Jonathan McBreen, a 6-3 junior who played a great game.McBreen pulled in 11 rebounds and tallied 13 points. Seven of those points came in the first quarter.Coach Clifford Woodford of Minersville agreed that it was defense which helped his team accomplish such an early lead."In the first quarter, we came out and our defenses were solid," said Woodford. "We created some easy buckets."Coach Woodford said of Marian, "In the second quarter they came back and matched our intensity. And definitely the second half they matched that intensity, if not surpassed it.""I gave them credit, they came out and they didn't quite," Woodford said. "They didn't quit. In the third quarter they took it to us."One reason the game stayed close was atrocious foul shooting by Minersville. For the night, they connected on just 13 of 34 shots from the stripe. They missed 12 foul line throws in the fourth quarter.Brandon Mohammed, a sophomore, was the only Marian in double figures netting 12 points. At the foul line, he hit four of five shots.Marian had a 32-31 edge in rebounding, with Mohammed pulling in eight and senior Michael Vercusky nabbing seven for the Colts.In shooting, Marian connected on 15 of 50 field goal attempts (30 percent). Minersville made 17 of 36 shots from the floor (47 percent).In the JV game, Marian pulled out a 38-37 victory.MINERSVILLEMcBreen 5-2-13-13, Hashin 1-0-2-2, Leshko 5-1-3-12, Stoppie 2-3-7-7, Brennan 2-2-2-6, Tobin 3-3-4-9, Brown 0-0-0-0, Stephen 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 19-13-34-53.MARIANKarnish 0-0-1-0, Woitko 0-2-2-2, Vercusky 2-0-3-4, Puza 0-0-0-0, Karchner 0-0-0-0, Paisley 3-0-0-8, Kuczynski 1-0-1-2, Cortese 0-0-0-0, DeAngelo 3-0-2-6, Mohammed 4-4-5-12, Wesner 3-0-0-6, Plesh 0-0-0-0, Weber 1-0-0-2, Myers 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-6-14-42.Minersville 23 9 7 14 - 53Marian 9 6 15 12 - 42Three-pointers: Minersville - McBreen 1, Leshko 1; Marian - Paisley 2.